Production "tricks"?

M

McShredsAlot

New member
Any of you guys use little "ear candy" effects in your songs? For instance, cymbal swells, reverse reverb or delay etc? One of my favorites is getting that lo-fi telephone effect at the beginning or at a break in the song and then have it come back full force. What are some of your favorite tricks like that?
 
Tape wind down/up effects can be cool

White noise sweeps are good as long as you don't overuse them

Automating the bass volume so it has more impact on loud parts

Briefely smashing the drum bus with a compressor for a trashy sound during a short part

Quick, hard tremolo on all/some of the rhythm instruments as a build-up for a chorus or other loud part
 
Well there's this neat thing I saw an engineer do once with some string, a ball and a couple of empty beer cans....

...oh........nevermind. :D

I like having some ear candy in a production, but it's rarely some kind of "trick"...only because most of the studio tricks have already been done, so you gotta have a real good reason for using one, unless you come up with something totally original.
Instead, I try to add ear candy by way of adding instrument parts and working arrangement....like having a little guitar lick that pops in for accent purposes, or some piano harmony line in the background against the melody, or using the kick/snare to accent the rhythmic pattern of the vocal on key words/phrases, or adding a new instrument just for one or two spots in the song..........that kind of stuff.
 
Mass reverb and phasing or flanging and panning from side to side momentarilly on drums.
But that's all you're getting from me. I've signed Wasserstein ~ Perella's secrets act.
 
Reverse reverb is a favourite of mine ever since I heard it on a Twisted Sister song years ago (can't remember which one is was, though).

Automated filter on either the drum buss or just the snare, moving up the frequency scale to a build up or come down. I think this really helps out a longer drum fill where not much else is happening.
 
Percussion, percussion, percussion! Everywhere! Bells, tamborines, shakey eggs, house keys, tapping a mic stand, anything that sounds cool and rhythmic.

Also, i'm a sucker for the "old telephone" filter effect on drum or guitar breaks.

I do like the occasional reverse reverb on the start of a vocal line so it kinda swells in, and distortion and saturation are always fun
 
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